Orange County Superior Court

Orange County Superior Court Judge Geoffrey Glass has upheld a decision by the county’s retirement board to reduce the pension of Orange County Public Works executive Carlos Bustamante, following Bustamante’s criminal convictions for sexually assaulting women who worked for him at the county.

A deputy district attorney and former judicial candidate, Karen Schatzle, has filed a federal lawsuit against the County of Orange and the District Attorney’s office alleging DA Tony Rackauckas retaliated against her and threatened her career because she ran against a judge he had endorsed.

Javed “Joey” Asefi was found guilty by a federal jury last week of participating in five-year racketeering scheme that paid $250,000 to an Orange County Superior Court clerk in exchange for resolving more than a thousand criminal cases and traffic violations without the knowledge of prosecutors and judges.

The lawsuit, filed in Superior Court by two longtime employees in the county Assessor's Office, alleges they were fired for reporting numerous illegal acts within the agency, is likely to head to a jury trial in October.

A court hearing to consider a temporary restraining order on a video showing Santa Ana police officers misbehaving during a raid of a marijuana dispensary was continued to next Thursday to give attorneys for the city of Santa Ana more time to respond.

Judge David O Carter this week demonstrated real leadership on combating homelessness by getting out into the field and challenging county officials to focus public resources on meeting immediate needs of riverbed residents. Yet will this rare focus last? Could receivership of federal and state funds coming into the County of Orange be on the horizon?

Rashad Al-Dabbagh, who lives in Anaheim and is the founder/director of the Arab American Civic Council, criticizes a decision last week by the U.S. Census Bureau that the 2020 Census would not include a new “Middle Eastern or North African” category in its race and ethnicity data collection for the 2020 Census.

Orange County supervisors step up their attack on public comment at their regular public meetings by pushing taxpayers to the end of their meeting agenda. The change means offering public comment to county supervisors will take hours of waiting.